The Excel HEX2BIN Function

Basic Description

The Excel Hex2Bin function converts a Hexadecimal (Base 16) number into a Binary (Base 2) number.

The syntax of the function is:

HEX2BIN( number, [places] )

Where the function arguments are:

number

-

The hexadecimal number that is to be converted to binary.

[places]

-

An optional argument, which specifies the number of characters that you want the returned binary number to have.

If this is greater than the minimum, the binary number will be padded out using leading zeros.

If omitted, the returned binary uses the minimum number of places.

Note that the supplied number argument must not be more than 10 characters (40 bits) long. The most significant bit of this value denotes the sign of the number and the remaining 39 bits denote the magnitude. Negative numbers are represented using two's complement notation.

It should also be noted that, as hexadecimals use the numbers 0-9 and the characters a-f, they should be enclosed in quotation marks when they are supplied to an Excel function. (e.g. The hexadecimal 11a should be input as "11a").